Customers are spending more, they are okay with fewer choices and they want quicker, more efficient service. Floral trainer Tim Huckabee shared his proven sales tactics to capitalize on those customer buying trends during an SAF webinar on Tuesday.
You already know that customer behavior and attitudes have changed in significant ways since the beginning of the pandemic. You’ve experienced the changes yourself — but have you adopted sales techniques that enable you to turn those changes into more profit?
Floral sales trainer Tim Huckabee, president of FloralStrategies, shared proven tactics for doing just that Tuesday during a Society of American Florists’ webinar, “New Sales Tactics for Today’s Customer.” Huckabee identified three main trends, along with strategies to make the most of them.
Trend No. 1: Customers are spending more. They have shown a willingness to accept higher price points than most florists previously assumed as the norm. The first step is to make sure you offer higher-priced items, both on the phone and on your website.
To guide customers to those higher-priced items on the phone, use a two-step process, Huckabee suggested: Listen, then leverage what you hear. Make sure you take the card message early in the process, which can start a conversation. Often, the customer will share information on their own about what kind of arrangement will work the best for them — and at what price: “It’s a major birthday,” “It’s our ten-year anniversary,” or “I’m so excited, my son is graduating from college!”
Then, don’t hold back from suggesting, “It’s an epic birthday? Let me suggest our most popular birthday arrangement at $150 or $200.”
“You can’t win them all,” said Huckabee, “but it’s our job to create awareness and offer the appropriate option.”
Huckabee also noted a sub-trend: the practice of placing a “tip jar” on the shop website. “Customers like to tip — so let them,” he said. “Then share that money with your staff. It’s a great way to give them recognition for a job well done.” Activating this feature online has been successful for every flower shop owner Huckabee knows who has done so.
Trend No. 2: Customers are okay with fewer choices. This is true both on the web and on the phone. Too many choices can be overwhelming, Huckabee emphasized. On the phone, the way to make a customer happy is not to present too many choices, but to listen carefully to the customer’s needs, then make targeted suggestions that inspire confidence in your expertise.
A side benefit of that strategy is that it streamlines the phone sales process both for you and for your customers, which ties into the third trend.
Trend No. 3: Customers want quicker, more efficient service. Again, the trick is knowing how to do that while connecting with the customer and not making them feel rushed. Even customers who can’t seem to make up their mind will in the end be grateful if, as a skilled salesperson, you can steer them toward an appropriate choice and then give them assurance that it’s the right item. Huckabee shared a story about a customer who, after their phone order was complete, raved about how fast and easy the shop employee had made the ordering experience. “That’s the equivalent of an Olympic gold medal in customer service,” Huckabee said.
Huckabee then offered specific suggestions for how to leverage the trends in each of a retail florist’s three main sales channels: on the phone, on the sales floor, and — an increasingly likely scenario — on a phone call with a customer who has just been to your website.
There could be many reasons why a customer who has already been to your website didn’t place an order on the site. Whatever the reason, Huckabee counsels two critical steps: First, confirm that they are on your own website, not that of a wire service or a shop with a similar name in another state.
Second, if they order a design from the website (and as long as you have the stock to make that design), simply validate their selection. It may not be your favorite design, but go ahead and tell the customer, “That’s a great choice,” or even, “That’s a customer favorite.” The goal for the shop and customer is to get through the shopping process as quickly as possible and feel good about it, Huckabee said.
Visit Career Connection to watch the webinar on demand. The webinar is free for SAF members, $14.99 for non-members.
Bruce Wright is a contributing writer for the Society of American Florists.
